What good is the Internet to anybody if you can’t complain about everything, no matter how small? China is about to find out just how unappealing social media can be when it’s been scrubbed of pessimism. Its Cyberspace Administration has decided your crappy mood is polluting the internet and must be removed.
That’s why, this fall, China launched a full-scale digital purge, expunging not just instances of dissent, but anything with the sour stench of pessimism.
The New York Times reports that bloggers who promote burnout, financial hopelessness, or the radical idea of not wanting kids are being kicked off platforms. If you’ve ever tweeted anything negative about America’s pro-corporate culture, the cynicism of hustle culture, or even just expressed the fact that you didn’t want to have kids and did so in the mildest, least confrontational way possible, you would have been booted off social media under the new rules.
Two top influencers with millions of followers were banned for promoting “lying flat” — a trend where young people reject the hustle-and-grind lifestyle in favor of minimalism and emotional upkeep. Another blogger got axed for suggesting that maybe China doesn’t have the same quality of life as the West. The West, on the other hand, is great because you can say something like that on Elon Musk’s X and you won’t get banned, but you do run the chance of having his swarm of Nazi bots attempt to digitally hang you in the town square. Freedom.
Keep Those Sad Thoughts to Yourself
Beijing’s digital detox campaign claims it’s about cleaning up false information and “emotional predators” who monetize gloom. It’s an interesting enemy to invent. These are people who aren’t spreading misinformation or spilling valuable secrets. All they’re doing is committing the crime of spreading disillusionment—and a justified disillusionment at that.
China’s economy is wobbly, youth unemployment is sky-high, and a safe, secure future feels out of reach. Their citizens are feeling a lot like ours right now. So people vent. They questioned the meaning of it all out loud in front of everybody. And that’s the problem.
The New York Times reports that platforms like Weibo have shut down over 1,500 accounts that dared speculate about the death of Yu Menglong, a young actor who died in September. It was supposedly an accident. A fall of some kind. People on Chinese social media didn’t believe it. Immediately, platforms were filled with conspiracy theories, with people wondering if the government had played a role in it.
Hu Chenfeng, a blue-collar mechanic who became a massive social media influencer by documenting poverty and inequality in China, has had all his social media accounts removed across multiple platforms because he was, in their view, “worshiping the West.”
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